Improvement in young stabbing victim's condition

Another improvement was reported in the condition of Shuva Malka, the 18-year-old girl who was stabbed in Afula yesterday.

Emek Hospital, where she is hospitalized in the intensive care unit, reports her condition to be moderate to severe and stable.

The Shin Bet security service announced yesterday the stabbing incident was a nationalistic attack, and that the terrorist, Nur Shinawi from Jenin, linked himself to the attack. His relatives in Jenin were interrogated to determine which of them knew of his intentions and other arrests were expected, mainly of collaborators in the attack.

Even before the announcement, Shuva's parents said they were demanding that police define the incident a terrorist attack. "Any other attitude degrades and reduces the incident," said the parents at Haemek Hospital in Afula.

"Our daughter was attacked at a bus stop, on the way to a citizenship exam," Malka recalls. "She was a righteous child, an innocent saint, and a wicked, cruel terrorist suddenly emerged, and all he wanted was to tear her to shreds because she was Jewish, and she looked very Jewish; very modest and virtuous."